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# What Digital Isolation and Censorship Evasion Look Like In Wartime Iran
- URL: https://werd.io/what-digital-isolation-and-censorship-evasion-look-like-in-wartime-iran/
- Published: 2026-04-01T14:12:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-01T14:12:55.000Z
- Description: "Four weeks into the war, Iran is plummeting toward total digital isolation with its internet blocked and communications heavily restricted and monitored." And it's part of a bigger trend.
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: Democracy, Notable links

\[[Laura Scherling in Tech Policy Press](https://www.techpolicy.press/what-digital-isolation-and-censorship-evasion-look-like-in-wartime-iran/)\]

I’ve worried that the internet will become a casualty of our worsening global politics. The inherent co-operation needed to let global networks talk to each other is aligned with an open world but not so much with an authoritarian one. Walled-off national internets — often called splinternets — may become more common.

While I worry about this for the US as the authoritarian screws continue to tighten, this is the concrete reality for people in Iran and 20 other countries today. As [this piece in Tech Policy Press](https://www.techpolicy.press/what-digital-isolation-and-censorship-evasion-look-like-in-wartime-iran/) points out:

> “The cybersecurity company Surfshark recorded 81 new internet restrictions in 2025 [across 21 countries](https://surfshark.com/research/study/internet-shutdowns-2025), pointing to evolving patterns of repression. Out of the 81 restrictions Surfshark tracked, 51 of these restrictive measures were taken [in response to](https://surfshark.com/research/study/internet-shutdowns-2025) political situations.”

News and information needs to be shared differently in this kind of environment: the digital distribution techniques we’ve spent the last few decades learning simply don’t apply. Last year, in [*Building distributed media for a democratic breakdown*](https://werd.io/building-distributed-media-for-a-democratic-breakdown/), I wrote about how we might learn from Cuba’s *‌El Paquete Semanal* and take advantage of both sneakernets and peer-to-peer networks to overcome these kinds of blockades. In a restrictive environment, people need news and journalism more than ever.

I wrote that piece somewhat speculatively, but the reception to it in journalistic circles took me by surprise. It’s an idea and a worry that people are taking seriously. And over the last six months, in a world that has seen more conflict, more restrictions, and more attacks on free speech, there have only been reasons to take it more so.

\[[Link](https://www.techpolicy.press/what-digital-isolation-and-censorship-evasion-look-like-in-wartime-iran/)\]